Peter Lougheed named best premier of last 40 years

Peter Lougheed was chosen best provincial premier of the past 40 years by a panel of experts in Policy Options magazine. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press )

Alberta's Peter Lougheed has been chosen as the best provincial premier in the last 40 years.

Policy Options magazine asked 30 historians, political scientists, economists, journalists and policy advisers from across Canada to pick their top five choices for best provincial premier since 1972.

The magazine is published by the Institute for Research on Public Policy, an independent, national, bilingual, non-profit organization.

The 30 were asked to rank the top five from a list of 18 potential candidates and Lougheed, who served as premier of Alberta from September 1971 to November 1985, was the only premier chosen by all jurors, and 21 chose him as the number 1 position.

In second place is Ontario's William Davis, followed by Saskatchewan's Allan Blakeney, New Brunswick's Frank McKenna and Robert Bourassa of Quebec.

The group says the magnitude of support for Lougheed spanned the country, with first-place votes in all regions.

Jury members were also asked to rate them according to nine questions pertaining to various aspects of leadership, such as vision and communications, fiscal and economic management, intergovernmental relations and other important files

Peter Lougheed's ratings were higher than the others on all questions, and ranged from 4.23 on interprovincial relations to 4.77 on ability to win over voters and elections.

The exercise was part of the institute's 40th anniversary. Also part of the celebration is a tribute dinner for Peter Lougheed on June 6 in Calgary.

The keynote speaker will be Alberta's newly elected premier, Alison Redford.